Worlds apart grow together

Dubai and Bulgaria are creating a buzz for very different reasons. So what is their appeal? Christopher Middleton investigates

It's Saturday lunchtime, and after a solid day and a half on his feet, the man from Bulgarian Dreams has sold 62 villas and apartments.

Hang on, his mobile's ringing. Make that 63.

"It really has been quite remarkable," says senior sales executive David Smith, putting yet another tick on his sheet. "There does seem to be a lot of interest in Bulgaria."

He's talking during a lull in the action at the three-day overseas property show organised by Channel Four's A Place in the Sun. Thousands of would-be buyers have paid £8 to come to London's Excel Centre to investigate the possibility of buying their own sunshine home. In all, 33 countries are competing for their share of the UK heatseekers' allowance, but there are two places in particular on people's lips: Bulgaria and Dubai.

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So what is it about these two very different destinations that is encouraging buyers to part with their hard-earned pounds?

Well, not to put too fine a point on it, Bulgaria is very cheap. "For £38,000 we're buying a one-bedroom apartment on the Windows to Paradise development at Balchik, on the Black Sea coast," says drainage engineer Nigel Brindle, from Peacehaven, in Sussex.

"To buy the same sort of place in Spain would have cost twice as much. I suppose we could have bought a ruined shack in France, but then we'd have had to spend half our lives doing it up, which is not what we want to do at all.

"Other firms have tried to pretend it's an all-year-round rental market, but the chap here said 'Look, I'm not going to lie to you - these apartments have got air-conditioning but no heating, and during the winter it's freezing.'" Not that the apartment's even been built yet. In fact, it won't be until March 2007 that Nigel and his girlfriend Kim Hance, a teaching assistant, will be able to take possession of their property; even then, they don't expect to spend more than a fortnight per year there - the rest of the time, they'll sit back and enjoy the rental money.

"As far as I'm concerned, it's a good long-term investment rather than an opportunity to make a quick killing," says Nigel. "There's already a golf course and a marina, and there are two more courses planned, so it's going to attract more visitors as the years go on."

Like Nigel and Kim, Michael and Claire Ansell, from Northamptonshire, haven't yet been out to the Black Sea, though they know some people who have.

"My grandparents rented a place out there when it was Communist," says Claire. "When they arrived, they met the family who lived there, who had all been moved out to make room. The old grandma was having to sleep in a box under a peach tree."

But things have moved on, and the Ansells have had more encouraging reports from friends who have just been out to the Sunny Beach resort, near the port of Burgas.

"We're looking for a place that's near a beach and is rentable," says Michael, a professional boatbuilder. "I've read a lot about Bulgaria, and it seems like it's the next big thing. The prices sound affordable, but I've come here to see if they really are as good as they seem. We've already got a place in Spain, near Almeria, and from my experiences there, I know that a place can be on sale for £30,000 to £40,000, which sounds good until you find out it's in the middle of the desert, or else there are all sorts of fees and taxes on top."

And if there's one thing that can cast a dark cloud over a dream home, it's the prospect of getting caught up in foreign red tape. No one wants to be at home in Potters Bar trying to get through to the planning department of Plovdiv town council.

Which might lead you to conclude that with Dubai being 3,500 miles away, no Brit would touch it with a bargepole. Quite the reverse, it seems. In fact, far from being a crazy gamble, a second home in Dubai seems popular among people approaching retirement age.

"We're the baby-boomer generation who have become a bit disenchanted with traditional pensions," says Colin Smith, who, with his wife Ursula, has come to Excel to explore the possibility of a Dubai apartment as an investment. They've been encouraged to do so by friends Jeff and Jan Wilson, fresh back from holiday there.

"It's growing so fast," says Jeff. "The building is going on 24 hours a day. Yet at the same time, the people there are easy-going and generous, and the country is so clean."

The place has even captivated experienced property-buyers such as Peter and Kristine Coleman, from Brighton. They already own seven overseas homes, and have now bought an eighth, in the Jumeirah Lake quarter of Dubai. Like much of this desert city, it's not yet built - but will be by February 2007.

"I think what's happening in Dubai is really exciting," says Peter, a tax adviser. "People say it's like getting in involved in Manhattan or Hong Kong at ground level." That said, the Colemans aren't getting carried away. What's encouraged them to buy is not the fact that David Beckham and Michael Owen have got places on the Palm (the tree-shaped development out to sea), or that Julio Iglesias has bought a villa there - but more sober-minded considerations.

'We've done some research into the company behind our development (the 40-storey Bonnington Tower), and we've found they already own a substantial hotel group, including the Cavendish in Eastbourne, with which we are familiar," says Peter.

"Another good thing is that we will be paying in sterling, so we don't have to worry about currency fluctuations. We like to think we know what we're doing when it comes to buying abroad, and have found that what makes for maximum returns is a financially secure development in a place which is going to experience growth."

Chances are, their Bonnington Tower apartment will go up in value, too. All the apartments have been sold, with one-bedroom places fetching £94,000 and two-bedroom apartments going for £122,800, with prices rising the higher up the building you get. Even the three-bedroom flats on the 39th floor went for just £285,000 - at which price you could buy a not very big house in the Home Counties, except that given the lack of Arabian sun, you'd be hard pushed to get any holiday rental income out of it.

"You have to decide whether a place is going to grow in the coming years," says Peter. "If you think it is, you get into the market, and if you think it isn't, you don't. But I really don't think anyone doubts that over the next few years, Dubai is going to get bigger."